Adobe has made significant changes to their licensing programs over the last few years, and that affects what we can do with their software and how much it costs.
In the past we were able to pay a flat fee for multiple concurrent licenses of various Adobe packages. While we still technically own those licenses, the software is not upgradable from the Creative Suite 6 (CS6) versions, and while it currently works on Windows 7 may no longer work on future versions of Windows in the future. Customers who have Adobe software currently on their computers under this license can continue to run it, but it may not be available in the future for computer upgrades.
Current licensing options:
While site licenses for Adobe software are available to institutions, the cost is prohibitive for the University at this time. The licensing program available to us is the VIP license program, which allows us to receive Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions at a competitive academic price, as well as allowing for device licenses (for labs and shared computers) which are not otherwise available.
Per-User licenses:
Pricing for the Adobe Suite starts at $420 per user per year. This gives a single named user access to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite of software, which can be installed on up to two computers (a work desktop and a work/personal laptop, for instance). Single Creative Cloud applications can be licensed for 50% of the cost of the entire suite (for instance, if you wanted just Photoshop it would cost $210 a year). Any purchase of any Creative Cloud subscription also includes Acrobat Pro for free. Pricing for the Creative Cloud Complete suite goes down as more people at Drew purchase subscriptions for the software, with price breaks at 50 and 250 users.
Per-Device licenses:
Device licenses can be used for computer labs or other shared computers. They allow anyone who uses the computer to use the licensed software, but none of the Adobe Creative Cloud features such as storage, preferences synchronization, etc. Pricing for device licenses starts at $300/device/year, with additional discounts at 50 and 250 devices as well.
For more information, please consult the Adobe VIP Academic LIcensing Guide.
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro Licenses
Some offices require or prefer the use of Adobe Acrobat Pro for document production as it has specific features that are not available in PDF-XChange Pro. Acrobat XI Pro can be purchased for approximately $120 as a retail license, which does not provide for upgrades and is not an annually renewed subscription. University Technology can assist with the purchase of the software, but this will be done by the relevant individual and they will also be responsible for installing and configuring the software on their own computer. University Technology supports PDF-XChange Pro as the recognized PDF editor for the campus. Also note that Microsoft Word (2007 and later) and Google Docs can export to PDF with no additional software needed.
Alternatives:
| Task | Alternative |
|---|---|
| PDF creation/editing | We have a site license for PDFXChange-Pro for creating an manipulating PDFs. Microsoft Office and Google Docs can export files as PDFs. |
| Photo editing | University Technology now supports the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) for basic image editing. Users preparing images for the Web might also be satisfied by any one of a number of free image editing websites (Google search). Smartphone or tablet apps for image editing, many free, may also be used. |
| Video editing | Macs come with iMovie. Most smartphones come with video editing tools. Again, there are free video editing tools. Users who are seriously editing video would be candidates for buying Premiere or Final Cut Pro. |
| Web page editing | Most University web pages no longer need an external editor such as Dreamweaver. WordPress will use the standard University template. Moodle and other tools also automatically format their webpages. Faculty/staff users who wish to have personal pages can now use Google Sites for their web pages. Blogging sites have their own templates and don't require the use of Web editing tools. |
Procedures:
Customers who have a need to purchase Adobe software, whether a Creative Cloud user or device license, or an Acrobat XI Pro license, should contact the University Technology Service Center and open a support request. They will then be contacted about purchasing and payment options.